Cousins....A vintage photo from 1989

This is a vintage photo of my 2 oldest when they were babies and they first met their older cousin. We were visiting them and had never seen each other as we were stationed in England. 

I used products from my August Studio Calico kit. I was trying to use up a bunch of the October Afternoon chipboard pieces. I used about 1/3 of the pack as I didn't want to have chipboard overload -  - and I think it might be right on the verge of too many as it is!! LOL I'm getting close to using up the whole kit ( my goal is to just use my kits and add stash so I won't have so much stash leftover) and the piece I wanted to use was just too bright to layer under the photo ( the floral paper), so I layered a piece of vellum on top of it and sewed around the edges to tone it down. I have some hidden journaling on a tag which I tucked into a pocket that I cut into the piece of vellum under the photo. I was so glad to use up so many child-like pieces of chipboard as I have a hard time using them up. I made a little confetti with some glitter paper and sprinkled a bit around the edges.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!

My beautiful girls.....

I'm not sure which one, but one of my beautiful daughters took this picture of the two if them while they were together this summer in Washington DC for Danielle's (the youngest) band trip.

I used products from my August Studio Calico kit, which is almost all used up!! I wasn't sure about the colors of this kit, not my usual style, but I've embraced the different and tried to stretch my creative comfort zone somewhat! I also made a confetti pouch using a vellum envelope and punches from all my scraps!

I cut those very fab arrows, the ampersand and part of the title with my Silhouette Cameo. Still loving that machine!

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a great day today!!

Roller Coaster Junkies....

I love this awesome photo that my older daughter Samantha took of herself and her sister that was sitting in back of her on this roller coaster! She used her Iphone right before they went over the big hill at the beginning of the ride. I don't like roller coasters all that much, so I was lounging with my mother at the waterpark! We were at King's Dominion amusement park and they have tons of roller coasters (over 10 of them) and they went on all of them - sometimes more than one time!!

I used products from my August Studio Calico and add-ons kit to make this layout. I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut the cool title out! I made this for the Sunday sketch here on the Studio Calico blog. I love the grid look!!

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!! :)

Weekend projects...

I usually don't have the time to work on any scrapbook related projects on the weekend because it's the time that I get to spend with my family shopping, doing chores, hanging together, just being a family. But, when I found out about a fun little virtual crop this weekend, I thought that I could probably fit in a little bit of creating in between everything else we did this weekend! Stephanie Howell (here's her blog) - one of the sweetest, most genuine person there is and someone that I get a lot of scrapping inspiration from - decided to have a spur of the moment virtual crop and posted a few very easy and small challenges and offered some of her very cool stash as an incentive!

The first challenge was just to create a project - just anything!! I didn't really have time for this but it's not too late! I'm hoping to get something done tonight before the deadline!

The second challenge was to create a tag with some kind of stamping involved. I made my butterfly tag with scraps and bits from my August Studio Calico kit. The stamped phrase is actually one that I made for a project last year but never used or threw away - I finally used it here!! :) I made a tiny little confetti sack which is just poking out from underneath the butterflies - it's filled with punched butterflies and circles. It was quick and easy to make the whole tag!

The second challenge was to make something with a bow on it. I made this card with some silk ribbon (which I hoard because I love it so, but it's hard to find!) and more bits and pieces from my stash! The paper and cardstock are from my August SC kit as well as the brad on the bow. The lace is some very cool washi-like adhesive backed ribbon from an earlier month's kit. I used a resin birdhouse made by Prima, a chipboard title made by My Minds Eye (backed with cardstock), a journal card from October Afternoon, some cute little buttons made by Pebbles, and a vintage hand decorated name card ephemera with a feather bird and painted flowers on it. I bought a pack of them from an antique store a couple of years ago, and I like to use them every once in a while (these are also something I hoard - and for good reason!!) This took a little longer to make since I sifted through my stash to find some "just right" items! I think it was worth it though! I love the way both of my projects turned out!

Stephanie threw out one more challenge today - to make something with a doily. I've got one on my tag, but I just might throw one more project together this evening!! :)

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day!! :)

August 12 - Take 12 on the 12th

Here's my layout that I made from the photos that I took on the 12th of August. On that day, I just didn't feel well at all!! I did a whole bunch of nothing most of the day, and Danielle was gone most of it, but I still wanted to get my photos done, so I decided to just some silly photobooth type pictures of the two of us! We used my Iphone - no app - just took one after the other silly photos - and I printed them out with my Selphy printer. I LOVE that printer - using the printer I just converted them all to black and white and printed them out with 6 photos on each print! That's just two 6x4 photos stacked together!

I used products from my August Studio Calico kit. I cut the "August" piece with my Silhouette and I just "had" to use a few veneer pieces to round things out!! I have a piece of the Hambly print camera transparency that I've been hoarding from one of my earlier kits since I found out that Hambly is going out of business, but I was inspired to use a strip of it on my layout after watching one of Shimelle Laine's Glitter Girl videos that she does for Two Peas in a Bucket! I've been watching them on my Ipad as I walk on my treadmill.

Don't forget that you have until today to upload your project here to win a very cool spot in a Big Picture Classes course!

Flower Tutorial - Front Porch Kit

I used one of my favorite flower paper folding techniques to make the flower on this card I made using the products from my Front Porch Kit-

 Here's the tutorial on this - it's the same flower with just different papers -

All you need are a few items – a piece of double-sided patterned paper, a circle punch (I used a 2″ punch but any size will do),a larger circle punch (for the base – or you can just freehand cut this),a large brad or button, and some adhesive.
First you need to punch out 8 circles with the smaller circle punch and one with the larger circle punch (I used a 2 1/2″ punch for the base circle).

Next, fold all of the smaller circles in half, and then in half again so that they are bent into four quarters.

Fold back two of the edges of all of the smaller circles so that they form a point.

Now, turn the circles over and fold the edges back so that they meet in the middle - sort of like a paper airplane.

After you finish folding all of the smaller circles, apply adhesive all over the large circle and start applying the small folded circles as shown

This is what the completed flower should look like
For the center of the flower that I used on my card, I layered a button on top of one of the metal flowers that came in the FP kit - Just Add Water. I also glued some of the dew drops (also from the kit) on each of the petal ends. It's so simple yet so striking!

There are still a limited amount of kits left - you can check it here to order one - but you'd better hurry before they're all gone!!

My girls....

Just a couple of layouts of my sweet girls - I've scrapped these photos before, but they are great shots, so I had to scrap them again!! I used products from my August Studio Calico kit with a little stash thrown in!

The top layout is of my younger dd a couple of years ago - I took the photo of her at a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans. Yeah, we had fun there as you can tell by her face! :)

I used the chevron stamp (I'm not the greatest stamper as you can tell, but I don't care - I like the imperfect look - that's my story and I'm sticking to it!). I cut the titles with my Silhouette Cameo. I actually did some stitching on here - it's been a while since I've done a lot of machine stitching on my layout - I used to do it on EVERY layout!! I made some splotched using some Mister Huey. That kind of turned into a mess because my cat decided to jump up onto my table right after misting and he swished his tail across and left some marks where I didn't want them! So I did some cover-ups - the top left hand corner was just going to be left blank, but there was a horrible swish of black across it, so it became a little collage!

One of the arrows at the bottom also had a black swish line, so I covered it up with the veneer butterfly - and then I added a few more for balance! I actually like it better with all the added pieces!

The bottom layout is of my older daughter and her husband. I took this photo a couple of years ago one fall afternoon. They really know how to pose well  - I had a great photoshoot with them that day!

I used the backside of inner piece of the patterned paper that I had just used on the previous layout of my younger daughter! I hated to waste the whole sheet just for the outer frame so I cut out the middle of it to use on another layout!! This layout came together quickly - I wanted to give the layout an airy, ethereal feel to it so that the photo would really stand out.I used the ribbon under the photo, across the page to ground the photo so it wouldn't look like it was flying on the page.

I used some fabulous crochet hearts made by Debbie Back (she sells these on Etsy), a couple of heart stick pins, a couple of veneer birds (Studio Calico) and some chipboard clouds (also by Studio Calico) from my stash. I purchased a pack of October Afternoon chipboard pieces and use a few of them on my layout with a few jewels sprinkled around and my layout was complete!!

If you made it all the way through this lllooonnggg post - thanks for sticking with it!!

And thanks for stopping by!! Have a great day!! :)

I love this

This layout features a bunch of pretties that I wanted to layer with this pretty photo of my daughter. Studio Calico has started releasing printables that are only available for one month and the ones with August's kit were just so pretty that I purchased them! I'm not usually a digi printer/hybrid person but I think they're a bargain at $3.99 and they can be reprinted as many times as you want! They include the circle "moments", the "i love this" banner, the aqua and yellow stripes with hearts, and the aqua banners. There are several more designs on the sheet that I can't wait to use! I know there's a way to have the Silhouette to cut them out, but I'm just not that techie to figure it out. So I just used the old fashioned method and used my trimmer, a circle punch and scissors!

Thanks so much for stopping by!! :)

Letting her know....

This is a layout about my youngest and our rather tumultuous relationship we are having right now - the kind that according to her she's always right, I'm always wrong. We argue about that one A LOT! Which is always, until she wants something from me. Having raised two teens already, I know this will eventually pass, but until then I wanted to let her know that I do love her - even though she's almost always so very wrong.....

sigh.....she'll learn...

For this layout, I used products from my August Studio Calico kit. I used my Silhouette to cut the chevrons down the center of my page and then backed it with some contrasting patterned paper.

I did some stamping and layering, and used the very cool cloud Hambly print transparency to accent the corners of my layout. I spray misted the veneer hearts with Mister Huey Sunset.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!! :)

Don't Forget to Take 12.....

I hope you didn't forget to Take 12 photos today (if you did take them tomorrow!) and then join in the on the fun at Ella Publishing! Upload your project here before the 19th and you will be eligible for the drawing to win a spot in a Big Picture Class!!

This month's Take Twelve sponsor is Big Picture Classes, and the lucky recipient will receive a spot in Elisha Snow's upcoming workshop that opens September 12, Get Great Photos with Any Camera:

In this four-week class, you'll learn the basics of photography and composition, and discover some fun and amazing photo tips that Elisha has amassed throughout her own learning adventures. You'll have the opportunity to see Elisha in action during her photo shoots, and learn some tricks for getting stellar photos.

Come join in the fun!! :)

Another layout with the Just Add Water kit by FPK

I have another layout that I made with my Just Add Water kit from Front Porch kits that I made after the reveal day. The photos were taken at the photobooth that was at my son's wedding - it's my mom and me being silly together!! The Silhouette Cameo cut banner is made from a piece of wood veneer paper that's in the kit - it's actual wood veneer and it cuts beautifully in the Cameo!! The rest were just bits and pieces that I had leftover from my  other projects. I still have a few things left - maybe enough to make another layout and a card! :)

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!! :)

Very quick card

This is just a quick card I made for a challenge on the Studio Calico blog to layer. Since I love to layer anyway, this literally came together in five minutes! I just gathered a bunch of leftover items from my July SC kit and stacked them together. Easy peasy and so fun!

Thanks for stopping by!! :)

Have a great day!!